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Within the realm of Civil Engineering, there is a plethora of directions your degree can take you. From Construction management, Design Engineering and Waste Water Treatment, no matter what path you choose, the need for reviewing plans and obtaining approval through a chain of command will follow you no matter where you go. While I understand not every review process is that same, I do believe a strict format should be followed while formulating these plans and submitting them for approval prior to the structures erection.

The process for review plans consisted of the creation of a contract drawing that focuses on any particular section of the project. Once the basic contract drawing was established and agreed upon by the owner, a more detailed shop drawing needed to be created. In theory, this would allow the craft workers to reference a visually appealing and well written document to allow the craft to build efficiently and without any lingering questions. The amount of checks and balances within the shop drawing revision process was unnecessary because of unforeseen problems. An individual who has yet to step foot on any project is tasked with creating this document. You can’t predetermine every scenario and hope to answer them all on paper if you have never worked in the field before and physically seen the product being built. I would propose that the individual tasked with the creation of the shop drawing must collaborate with the field engineers. This minor adjustment in the drawings process would allow for uninterrupted construction and eliminate delays for missing information or unforeseen issues. Collaboration would keep the creation of these documents on schedule while eliminating the need for clarification on missing information.